A new rule stipulates that wine made in Japan from grapes harvested in Japan be labeled as "Japan wine". The main grape varieties for Japan Wine, Koshu for white wine and Muscat Bailey A for red, are ...unique to Japan. Koshu is native to Japan and its origin, long unknown, has recently been revealed through DNA analysis. Wine made from this variety suffered from a lack of characteristic aroma, but a recent study has demonstrated its potential for producing wine with a citrus scent. Muscat Bailey A was bred in Japan. Its characteristic sweet aroma has been identified as being due to furaneol. Another characteristic of its wine is that it has a low concentration of proanthocyanidins (condensed tannin), and the reason for this was revealed recently. These and other studies have been conducted in wine companies, universities, and research institutes in Japan and support the development of Japan Wine.
Abbreviations: SSR: simple sequence repeat; SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; 3MH: 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol; 4-HDMF: 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone; PCA: principal component analysis
DNA analysis revealed the origin of Koshu, the most important white wine variety in Japan. It has a potential to produce wine with citrus aroma.
Visible light primarily induces biosynthesis of proanthocyanidins and increases the level of B-ring hydroxylation in proanthocyanidin subunits, whereas UV light specifically induces biosynthesis of ...flavonol in young berry skins of wine grape. Display omitted
► Visible light induces biosynthesis of proanthocyanidins in young grape skins. ► Visible light increases the level of B-ring hydroxylation of proanthocyanidins. ► UV light specifically induces biosynthesis of flavonol. ► The decrease in proanthocyanidin biosynthesis by light exclusion is limited. ► Members of a MYB transcription factor family are regulated differently by light.
Biosynthesis of phenolic compounds is known to be sensitive to light environments, which reflects the possible role of these compounds for photoprotection in plants. Herein, the effects of UV and visible light on biosynthesis of flavonoids was investigated, i.e., proanthocyanidins (PAs) and flavonols, in young berry skins of a red-wine grape, Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon. Shading with light-proof boxes from the flowering stage until 49days after treatment (DAT) partially decreased PA concentrations, and completely decreased flavonol concentrations in the berry skins. Shading decreased the transcript abundance of a flavonol-related gene more remarkably than those of PA-related genes. In addition, light exclusion influenced the composition of PAs, such as the decrease in the proportion of trihydroxylated subunits and the mean degree of polymerization (mDP) within PAs. However, solar UV exclusion did not affect the concentration and composition of PAs, whereas this exclusion remarkably decreased the flavonol concentration. Consistently, UV exclusion did not influence the transcript levels of PA-related genes, whereas it dramatically decreased that of flavonol-related genes. These findings indicated a different light regulation of the biosynthesis of these flavonoids in young berry skins of wine grape. Visible light primarily induces biosynthesis of PAs and affects their composition, whereas UV light specifically induces biosynthesis of flavonols. Distinct roles of members of a MYB transcription factor family for light regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis were proposed.
The variability in grape (
Vitis vinifera
L.) proanthocyanidin content is largely attributable to viticultural and environmental conditions. However, the particular effect temperature has on ...proanthocyanidin biosynthesis is poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the magnitude of the effect of temperature on proanthocyanidin biosynthesis in Cabernet Sauvignon grape berries cultured in vitro. In addition, the effects of temperature on global gene transcription were evaluated, and the microarray data were later validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). The grape berries used in this research were sampled 3–4 weeks after full bloom and cultured in vitro either under a low (20 °C) or high (30 °C) temperature treatment for 15 days (d) with sampling occurring every five days. The proanthocyanidin content was higher in the skin and seeds of grape berries cultured at a low temperature compared with a high temperature. However, overall proanthocyanidin composition between the treatments was not significantly affected. Microarray data revealed a total of 1298 genes with ≥ 3.5-fold expression differences under high temperature conditions. High temperature also inhibited the expression level of key genes involved in proanthocyanidin biosynthesis, anthocyanidin reductase (
ANR
) and leucoanthocyanidin reductase-1 (
LAR-1
) within the berry skin. However, the transcriptomic accumulation of transcription factors, such as
VvMybPAs
,
VvMyb5a
and
VvMyb5b
, was barely influenced during the peak expression of
ANR
and
LAR-1
. Thus, the present study revealed that temperature has a significant effect on proanthocyanidin biosynthesis in grape during berry development through enhancing the expression of key biosynthetic genes.
To determine the mechanism of inhibition of anthocyanin accumulation in the skin of grape berries due to high temperature, the effects of high temperature on anthocyanin composition and the responses ...in terms of gene transcript levels were examined using Vitis vinifera L. cv. Cabernet Sauvignon. High temperature (maximum 35 °C) reduced the total anthocyanin content to less than half of that in the control berries (maximum 25 °C). HPLC analysis showed that the concentrations of anthocyanins, with the exception of malvidin derivatives (3-glucoside, 3-acetylglucoside, and 3-p-coumaroylglucoside), decreased considerably in the berries grown under high temperature as compared with the control. However, Affymetrix Vitis GeneChip microarray analysis indicated that the anthocyanin biosynthetic genes were not strongly down-regulated at high temperature. A quantitative real time PCR analysis confirmed this finding. To demonstrate the possibility that high temperature increases anthocyanin degradation in grape skin, stable isotope-labelled tracer experiments were carried out. Softened green berries of Cabernet Sauvignon were cut and aseptically incubated on filter paper with 1 mM aqueous L-1-13Cphenylalanine solution for 1 week. Thereafter, the changes in 13C-labelled anthocyanins were examined under different temperatures (15, 25, and 35 °C). In the berries cultured at 35 °C, the content of total 13C-labelled anthocyanins that were produced before exposure to high temperature was markedly reduced as compared with those cultured at 15 °C and 25 °C. These data suggest that the decrease in anthocyanin accumulation under high temperature results from factors such as anthocyanin degradation as well as the inhibition of mRNA transcription of the anthocyanin biosynthetic genes.
We investigated the effect of exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) application on the transcriptome as well as the phenolic profiles in the skins of
Vitis vinifera
cv. Cabernet Sauvignon grape berries grown ...on the vine and cultured in vitro. ABA application rapidly induced the accumulation of anthocyanin and flavonol. Correlatively, the structural genes in the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways, their transcriptional regulators, as well as genes considered to be involved in the acylation and transport of anthocyanin into the vacuole, were upregulated by ABA treatment. The Genechip analysis showed that the ABA treatment significantly up- or downregulated a total of 345 and 1,482 transcripts in the skins of berries grown on the vine and cultured in vitro, respectively. Exogenous ABA modulated the transcripts associated with osmotic responses, stress responses, cell wall modification, auxin and ethylene metabolism and responses, in addition to the induction of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes, and reduced those associated with photosynthesis; approximately half of these transcripts were identical to the previously reported ripening-specific genes.
Kimoto-style seed mash is a traditional preparation method for sake that takes advantage of spontaneous lactic acid fermentation before the growth of yeast. Lactic acid helps decrease the pH in seed ...mash and control the growth of unfavorable microorganisms. In this study, we carried out a comprehensive analysis of the change in the bacterial community and chemical composition during the lactic acid fermentation stage in kimoto-style seed mash preparation. The bacterial transitions were diverse at five sake breweries, but they exhibited three patterns.
was the dominant species in the later stage of lactic acid fermentation in all sake breweries. This species was found to be the most important bacterium for the accumulation of lactic acid, because its average production rate of lactic acid in seed mash reached 4.44 × 10
mg cell
h
, which is 10 times higher than those of other species. As a result of specific growth rate analysis, it was revealed that the growth rate of
was influenced by the strain, pH, and temperature. The effects of pH and temperature were explained by the square root model, and the result indicates that the strains isolated in this study were incapable of growth below pH 3.9. The growth curve predicted using the growth model fit the actual cell density in two out of five sake breweries; however, our model did not work well for the remaining three sake breweries, and we presume that the error was caused by the strain or an unknown factor.
It is important to produce lactic acid in kimoto-style seed mash; however, the bacterial transition is different depending on the sake brewery. The reason why there are diverse bacterial transitions during kimoto-style seed mash preparation for each sake brewery is unclear so far, and it causes difficulty in starting kimoto-style seed mash. Our findings indicate that the changes in pH caused by lactic acid bacteria grown prior to
in seed mash influence the growth of
and are related to the diversity of the bacterial transition. This study uses comprehensive analytical methods to reveal that there is a diversity of bacterial transition and chemical compositions in kimoto-style seed mash depending on the sake brewery and to explain the differences in bacterial transition depending on the characteristics of
.
Kobayashi et al show that a retrotransposon-induced mutation in VvmybA1, a homolog of VlmybA1-1 is associated with the loss of pigmentation in white cultivars of V. vinifera. Research demonstrates ...that a retrotransposon insertion in VvmybA1 is the molecular basis of white coloration in It and A1 and that the same mutant allele has spread among most, if not all, white grape cultivars in the world.
Differences in mineral concentrations were examined among three types of wine in the Japanese market place: Japan wine, imported wine, and domestically produced wine mainly from foreign ingredients ...(DWF), where Japan wine has been recently defined by the National Tax Agency as domestically produced wine from grapes cultivated in Japan. The main objective of this study was to examine the possibility of controlling the authenticity of Japan wine. The concentrations of 18 minerals (Li, B, Na, Mg, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Mn, Co, Ni, Ga, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ba, and Pb) in 214 wine samples were determined by inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and ICP-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). In general, Japan wine had a higher concentration of potassium and lower concentrations of eight elements (Li, B, Na, Si, S, Co, Sr, and Pb) as compared with the other two groups of wine. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models based on concentrations of the 18 minerals facilitated the identification of three wine groups: Japan wine, imported wine, and DWF with a 91.1% classification score and 87.9% prediction score. In addition, an LDA model for discrimination of wine from four domestic geographic origins (Yamanashi, Nagano, Hokkaido, and Yamagata Prefectures) using 18 elements gave a classification score of 93.1% and a prediction score of 76.4%. In summary, we have shown that an LDA model based on mineral concentrations is useful for distinguishing Japan wine from other wine groups, and can contribute to classification of the four main domestic wine-producing regions of Japan.
A newly characterized grapevine MYB transcription factor regulates proanthocyanidin biosynthesis in a highly regulated spatiotemporal manner with closely related MYB transcription factors.
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